American V's British Drama

[Less]

Anybody noticed the striking difference between American and British Drama series on Television.

They are absolute worlds apart.

An American Drama first Numb3rs.

An FBI Agent gets stuck every week and has to call on his father, his nerdy brother and all his brothers equally if not even more nerdy workmates to solve the crimes for him.

These 'unofficial' helpers have free access to the main FBI Headquarters and go off traipsing all over the crime scenes without anyone saying, "Sorry you can't come in here officials only". This group of amateurs solve the baffling crimes every week and manage to do it in an hour.

Yeah Right!

The British Drama, a re-run of a series called extinct.

This is set in a forest somewhere down southish, the main hero is a nerdy professor with a few dumbo sidekicks that meet a young lady zoo keeper as she and they are searching for reported sightings of dinosaurs.

It doesn't take long they find some, however another young lady that is with them is from the Home Office what does she do? does she order up a task force with lot's of cages and scientists to try and capture the wee beasties?

No, she says to the whole group, "Well before we go any further you will all have to sign the Official Secrets Act!" and takes them all off to a large office building on Whitehall and the next thing we see are the heroes actually in an office signing pieces of paper!

Yeah Right!

This was only episode 1 of extinct perhaps they will do something tomorrow when episode 2 is shown.

Now which of these two drama's is the more believable?

My money is on the British Drama I think they got the red tape absolutely correct, whereas the American one pretends that they wouldn't be bogged down by such stuff but we all know that really they would.

[cashman]

more drama on accyweb than either of em.

[flashy]

hate ALL American programmes nomatter what they are

[jaysay]

I think eac has its place. As some one who watches a lot of telly I like all kinds of drama, but on the whole I think British is best, when you look at series like Taggart, Morse, Prime Suspect, Spooks, Rebus ECT, they take some beating, but for a change I qute like the Law and Order threesome with Criminal Intent and Special Victims Unit and CSI thresome as well.

[shakermaker]

Once you go Jack, you never go back. 24 rules all. Amen.

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by shakermaker

Once you go Jack, you never go back. 24 rules all. Amen.

liked the first two shaker, but got a little tedious after that, think the scond one was the best of the lot though

[shakermaker]

I'd agree that the second was the best, and that the rest haven't lived up to that series, but I still enjoy all of them.

[pipinfort]

There is not much american stuff i like really with the exception of Heroes......

[WillowTheWhisp]

Are you sure the British series was realistic? Wouldn't there be more red tape than that?

[Gayle]

I prefer American drama mostly because of the way it's written and filmed, it's usually very stylish. At the moment I'm loving Bones and Cold Case. Yes, they are a bit dumb in a lot of ways - they fit a lot into an hour that would really be spread over about six months of detailed investigation, but they have such a cracking pace and suspense about them. British cop dramas tend to lumber along, very sweet and quaint but without any pace.

American dramas are team efforts when it comes to writing - although it usually has a 'written by...' on each programme he/she is the head of the team - they have more people working on dialogue so each character has a very different voice, whereas in British drama there are stereotypes written in because there's usually one writer trying to write in different voices.

Also American dramas are filmed week by week so are only about three weeks ahead of when they're shown, even for a 26 part series. So they reflect the seasons so much better and seem relevant, they can react to politics quickly. British ones are written and filmed in series then shown after filming has ended.

Another thing - and by this point I bet you're thinking 'she's studied this far too much' - they are filmed very stylishly, they use fast camera techniques and more hand held cameras so that there is again that sense of pace.

Sorry, bit of an anorak I know but what the heck, you asked!

[emamum]

i love heroes but i do think sometimes the american shows are dragged out for too long, like lost and 24.. i start off liking it then get really bored and give up.

[Gayle]

Originally Posted by emamum23

i love heroes but i do think sometimes the american shows are dragged out for too long, like lost and 24.. i start off liking it then get really bored and give up.

I agree with you there, knowing when to stop would be a good thing.

I was also going to say that America does better science fiction than the UK but in fact, I think a number of really good science fiction - X-Files and Stargate, I'm thinking about are actually Canadian made.

[shakermaker]

X Files isn't a drama, pft, it's my religion

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by Gayle

I prefer American drama mostly because of the way it's written and filmed, it's usually very stylish. At the moment I'm loving Bones and Cold Case. Yes, they are a bit dumb in a lot of ways - they fit a lot into an hour that would really be spread over about six months of detailed investigation, but they have such a cracking pace and suspense about them. British cop dramas tend to lumber along, very sweet and quaint but without any pace.

American dramas are team efforts when it comes to writing - although it usually has a 'written by...' on each programme he/she is the head of the team - they have more people working on dialogue so each character has a very different voice, whereas in British drama there are stereotypes written in because there's usually one writer trying to write in different voices.

Also American dramas are filmed week by week so are only about three weeks ahead of when they're shown, even for a 26 part series. So they reflect the seasons so much better and seem relevant, they can react to politics quickly. British ones are written and filmed in series then shown after filming has ended.

Another thing - and by this point I bet you're thinking 'she's studied this far too much' - they are filmed very stylishly, they use fast camera techniques and more hand held cameras so that there is again that sense of pace.

Sorry, bit of an anorak I know but what the heck, you asked!

Think we're going to have to watch what threads we put on here Gayle, either that or you'll have to get out more

[pipinfort]

Originally Posted by Gayle

I was also going to say that America does better science fiction than the UK .

Doctor Who.........?